Congressional candidate Ryan Frazier[1] will hold a telephone town hall meeting on the Mexican border tonight to discuss illegal immigration[2], a move slammed by his opponent as a “silly campaign gimmick.”

Frazier and Lang Sias also traded barbs on illegal immigration last week during two debates between the Republican candidates for the 7th Congressional District.

In one debate, Sias said there is no record of Frazier during his two terms on the Aurora City Council “having raised or taken leadership or even used the bully pulpit on the issue of illegal immigration.”

Frazier fired back that at least he had a record to examine. Sias has never run for office before.

That debate aired Sunday on 9News. The next day, at the Aurora council’s Public Safety Committee meeting, Frazier asked the police chief to report about illegal immigrants and the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Frazier toured the border city of Nogales this afternoon as part of an effort to see the “problems an unsecured and porous border has on our country.”

Sias’ campaign manager, Sean Walsh, called the visit a “contrived and inappropriate photo op” that would do “nothing to secure our borders or add new solutions to a serious national security problem.”

Tancredo has endorsed Sias in the race, while Coffman is backing Frazier.

“Sias’ attempt to distort Ryan’s record is just a political distraction from the issues, his support for liberal Mark Udall, and their deteriorating campaign,” Houlton said.

Sias, who also has been a Democrat and an unaffiliated voter, once donated $250 to Udall’s congressional campaign.

The candidates were asked about illegal immigration last week during “Your Show,” sponsored by 9News, and “Colorado Decides,” hosted by CBS4 and KBDI-Channel 12.

Sias said on “Your Show” that Frazier until recently advocated “we get rid of certain penalties on illegal immigrants, specifically the three- and 10-year bans.”

Immigration rules bar those who are in the country illegally and leave from attempting to return for three or 10 years, depending on how long they were in the United States.

Frazier also told ABC’s Top Line last year that “we have to look at reform that would allow us to respect the laws of this country while still understanding and embracing the fact that these folks, most of these folks, are here to do the right thing. They’re here to work.”

“That doesn’t appear in any of what he is putting out these days,” Sias said. “I do think he owes a bit of an explanation of his evolution on that issue.”

“I have never, never advocated for removing penalities,” Frazier countered on “Your Show.” “I’ve simply said that what we need to do is put in place the ways in which we can provide solutions to the illegal immigration problem, and the three- and 10- year bar is not helping that.”

The winner of the Aug. 10 primary faces U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter[5], D-Golden. He has backed comprehensive immigration reform, which includes securing the borders and providing a pathway to citizenship for immigrants without criminal records who have jobs and are learning English, said his spokeswoman, Leslie Oliver.